The Press., 1887-10-20
(For The Press.) -- NEW YORK PRODUCE EXCHANGE.
BY JENNIE PORTER ARNOLD.

stands on the Shore of the bay near the battery. On enquiry I learned it was the Produce Exchange, the seat of the most influential mercantile corporation in New York, if not in America. A subsequent visit to the building still more increased my interest, for here the questions of what we shall eat, what we shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be lighted? is dealt with in most satis- factory manner and on most gigantic scale.
 The building stands almost on the Ispot where the boats of the adventurous HolIanders first touched the shores of Manhattan. Of. the modern Renais- sance in style and marked by symmet- rically beautiful lines, it's general effect is imposing, and gives the idea of strength and permanence. It is 15Ox- 300 feet in superficial area, 116 feet from sidewalk to roof, 225 feet to coping of tower, and 3O6 to top of flagstaff. The flag which floats from this staff is 2Ox5O feet the largest in the world. Entering the Exchange from Broadway we found ourselves in corridors, from which open the doors of private offices of the Produce Exchange Bank, branch of the United States post office, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and the bustling Maritime Exchange. The upper floors are reached by nine elevators, which carry on an average nearly twenty-two thousand persons daily One of these elevators took us to the Exchange Hall, which is 144x220 feet, with height of 471 feet to ceiling and 60 feet to skylight. On the right of this room, attached to pillars, are blackboards reporting the prices of va rious products in London, Liverpool, Antwerp and Bremen. Eight long ta- bles, provided with drawers and distinct compartments on the surface, afford conveniences to the flour merchants j; while one similar table supplies the needs of dealers in tallow, lard, grease and oils. Here are also samples of all the different grades of grain, which are obtained by appointed inspectors, who sample each car and vessel load by means of a hollow iron sampling rod, whose valves open to admit the grain as the rod is thrust into the interior of the mass, and close so as to retain the sam pie when 1t is drawn out This process several times repeated in different parts of car or vessel secures reliable samples. While on the floor of the Exchange Hall a buyer may receive from Europe ca ble order for a cargo of grain, flour, or provision, may purchase what IS desired, charter vessel for shipment, engage an elevator to load the grain, or lighter to move the provision or flour, effect in surance, sell exchange, cable back the fact of purchases, and write and mail his letters. For the last purpose, letter openings in conduit oryEfrun,"' costing $1, 800, placed on each floor by the Cut Ter Mailing System, proves a great con- uenience.
 Back of the Exchange Hall is the call room, where provisions and grain are sold through the medium of the two presiding callers. Five hundred seats arranged in amphitheatrical form ascend in concentric rows from the floor. This room daily presents an i'm pressive spectacle of the traffic in grains, The first call is made at 11.45 a. m., the second at 1.3O p. m. About $50 brok CTS are usually present. The caller of grain presides, and in rapid, monoto- nous voice calls off the different lots as offered for sale, and receives such bids as are given. The profits to the buyer or seller frequently do not exceed { of a cent bushel, but aggregate large sums when 1t is seen that the sales for one year from the call room were over sixty million bushels of wheat, thirty-three million of corn, and nearly six millions of oats. Almost all the farm products exported are bought and sold in the Exchange-the average daily business exceeds ten million of dollars; one deal CT has been known to buy or sell four hundred thousand bushels of grain in half an hour. The export of grain and grain products in year have amounted to over $16O, 100000, with about thirty million pounds of butter and 3O,OOO,- 900 pounds of cheese, besides large quantities of other products. Seventy five per cent. or more of these were probably bought and sold ten or twenty times over before they were shipped.
 A large colony of offices in four stories of rooms, devoted to mercantile uses, rises above Exchange Hall. On the third floor is an elegantly furnished reception room, where are two fine upright pianos :; here is also library with leather-covered cherry furniture, and an ample supply of foreign and domestic periodicals. In the basement are the offices of the New York Produce Exchange Safe Deposit and Stor- age Company, the neat and commodious reading and reception room, the ladies' room with parlors, toilet, &c., the trus- tees room, and thirty seven different apartments for secluded handling of docu- ments. There are 1900 safes in the mon- ey vault, which has massive doors, each of the two outer ones weighing 1000 pounds, and each of the two inner ones 5000. Seven alternate layers of steel and iron encompass the vault, while the windows are secured by $500 pounds of iron bars. There are 190 offices iu the building, the rent of which, with premiums and privi- leges, yields the corporation over $2OO, ,OOO yearly. The rooms are open for business from 9 a. m. to p. m., or 3.3O p. m. on Saturdays. There are over three thousand members of the Produce Exchange, their initiation fees being g, 500 each in 1882 /; since then certificates of membership have sold for from $2, 75O to $4, 800.